POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



141 



of Europe, with a view of founding an Amer- 

 ican school. Considerable progress has 

 been made in forestry in India, where steps 

 for forming a regular forest administration 

 were taken immediately after the mutiny. 

 A policy of sending candidates to foreign 

 schools to be trained has given the state a 

 body of able men, thoroughly grounded in 

 the management of natural forests covering 

 extensive tracts of country. Within the last 

 two years the Cape of Good Hope and Cy- 

 prus have been furnished with forest officers 

 from France. The Mauritius, Ceylon, the 

 Straits Settlements, Hong-Kong, Feejee, and 

 other British colonies, are all following suit, 

 and have recourse to Kew and other similar 

 institutions for foresters. Of all the British 

 colonies, South Australia is the one that is 

 giving most attention to the subject. More 

 would, undoubtedly, be accomplished in all 

 the colonies had Great Britain a central in- 

 stitution for training a sufficient number of 

 foresters to supply their needs. 



Egypt as a Health Resort. In estimat- 

 ing the merits of Egypt as a winter residence 

 for invalids, Dr. Edith Pechey specifies dry- 

 ness and equableness of temperature as the 

 characteristics of climate chiefly demanded 

 for such a purpose. Of the former quality 

 one soon has practical proof iu a Nile voy- 

 age. The hair gets very dry, the nails grow 

 slowly and are very brittle, and all articles 

 of use in some way give testimony of it. 

 The air becomes drier with the ascent of 

 the river, " and the dry heat is more easily 

 borne than moist heat. One experiences no 

 discomfort from the increase of temperature 

 as one approaches the tropics ; in fact, one 

 thoroughly enjoys there what in Lower 

 Egypt would be found quite oppressive." 

 Egypt is not exempt from occasional sud- 

 den and great changes of temperature, but 

 they are rare. Of much greater importance 

 are the variations. The temperature falls 

 suddenly at sunset for about half an hour, 

 and another depression takes place in the 

 early morning. The changes are very evi- 

 dent in a wooden boat, and from this fact 

 constitute a great drawback in the dahabeeah 

 voyage for invalids. In Nubia, the diurnal 

 variation is much less marked, and the 

 nights are only pleasantly cool. The life 

 on the dahabeeah is a very enjoyable one, 



and " for cases of overwork nothing could 

 be devised more calculated to restore and 

 strengthen the intellectual powers than the 

 Nile trip, and here no physician need hesi- 

 tate for a moment. There are perfect rest, 

 no railway bustle or jar, the variety of trav- 

 eling in fact without the fatigue, with the 

 constant enjoyment of sunshine and fresh 

 air." Phthisical and rheumatic patients 

 will also be greatly benefited, if they are 

 careful in guarding themselves against the 

 night and morning chills. 



Cowries and African Currency. Herr 

 John C. Hertz has published a memoir, in 

 the " Transactions of the Geographical So- 

 ciety of Hamburg," on the use and diffusion 

 of the cowrie-shell (Cyprcea moneta) as a 

 medium of exchange. The author's father 

 dispatched a vessel to the Maldive Islands 

 in 1844 for a cargo of cowries, to be sold to 

 merchants for use in West African trade. 

 Not finding as many shells there as they had 

 anticipated, they completed their cargo with 

 the larger and less valuable species of Zan- 

 zibar, where the cowries are burned into 

 lime. Several cargoes of cowries were sent 

 annually to Whydah and Lagos, where they 

 were exchanged with the slave-traders for 

 the Spanish doubloons they received from 

 the sale of slaves. The Hamburg ship- 

 captains dispatched this money home from 

 Cape Town. The cowrie-trade continued 

 to extend as the slave-trade flourished, till 

 Brazil took measures to prevent the intro- 

 duction of African slaves. Simultaneously 

 with the extinction of the slave-trade began 

 the introduction of palm-oil, and a new trade, 

 in which that product took the place of the 

 Spanish doubloons, that grew as the use 

 of palm-oil was extended. It flourished 

 greatly during the Crimean War, when the 

 Black Sea tallow was excluded from the 

 markets. With it also flourished the trade 

 in cowries, which thus appears to be con- 

 nected with so many historical events that, 

 considered from that point of view, it may 

 be regarded as in some sort a measure of 

 historical development a view which re- 

 ceived another exemplification in 185'2, when 

 England blockaded the coast of Dahomey, 

 and the trade in cowries was stopped. In 

 1845 the Sultan of Bornoo reformed his 

 currency, and introduced Spanish doubloons 



